Rylands edged out in bid to lift first ever Non-League Super Cup!

by Garry Clarke

TWO late goals ended Warrington Rylands spirited quest to bring the Non-League Super Cup back to Warrington.

Higher league Hornchurch struck twice in the last five minutes to become the first-ever winners of the Cup played for by the winners of last season’s FA Trophy and Vase.
After an initial feeling-out process, Hornchurch almost caught out the Rylands rearguard with a long ball over the top which was nudged past Rylands goalkeeper Graeme McCall fortunately Rick Smith was covering to clear. The resultant corner found Liam Nash, whose shot was well saved by the feet of McCall.
Having repelled the early attacks and the heavy rain, which was a frequent visitor to the game, Rylands went on the attack with a Ste Milne cross just evading Kane Drummond with the goal at his mercy. A Joe Coveney corner cleared a packed penalty area, Milne returned the ball to the far post where Coveney headed over.
Rylands had a double penalty shout turned down in the 25th minute as both Drummond and Milne appeared to be brought down. As referee Gerry Heron was waving away the appeals Hornchurch cleared the ball to Nash, sprinting away from any chasing players he chipped that ball over the advancing McCall with a sublime finish to give his side the lead.
Hornchurch, who play their league football a step higher than Rylands, dominated the remainder of the first half with McCall making a string of top-class saves to keep his team in the game.
The Rylands custodian was called into action in the opening moments of the second half denying Nash a second goal with an unbelievable point-blank save spreading himself Schmichael star finish style to keep out Nash’s header from a cross whipped in from the right-wing.
Hornchurch continued to dominate, but Rylands leveled just after the hour mark when Milne clipped a shot from the edge of the area into the net off the underside of the bar.
The visitors started to enjoy a period of dominance with Drummond and Callum Dolan both drawing saves from Hornchurch goalkeeper Finlay Thackway.
As the game entered its final stages the home side started to assert their dominance once again but were finding it difficult to get past McCall and his resolute blue-shirted defenders until the 86th minute. Jack Tinning was adjudged to have tripped Nash a few yards outside the area. Named by the sponsors PitchingIn as man of the match, Nash took the free kick which took a wicked deflection off the wall wrong-footing McCall who could only watch id despair as the ball trickled into the net.
With four minutes of stoppage time to play any hopes of a miraculous Rylands comeback were dashed two minutes later. A pinpoint cross from Ellis Brown found Sam Higgins who guided his header past McCall to seal the win.
Never giving up, Rylands pulled a goal back deep into stoppage time when Coveney curled home a free-kick with the last kick of the game.
WARRINGTON RYLANDS: McCall Simpson Tinning Smith Denman Lees (Dolan) Gerrard Sheen (Hassell) Milne Coveney Drummond (Sambor); Sub not used Hilton.
HORNCHURCH: Thackway, Parcell, Sutton, Clark, Hayles, Muldoon, Dickson (Higgins), Spence (Christou), Nash, Brown, Ruff (Hassan). Subs not used Karby, Gibbs.
GOALS – Hornchurch Nash 25, 86 Higgins 88 Rylands Milne 61, Coveney 90+4
Referee Gerry Heron attendance 457